Interview: Lori Foster, author of 'What Chris Wants'

Interview: Lori Foster, author of 'What Chris Wants'

I’m a big fan of series romances, especially ones written by an author who makes you love the secondary characters as well as the main characters, so much so that you want to see more of them. Lori Foster is one of my favorite authors and every series she’s written has been a winner for me.

Her Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series is about a group of good-guy mercenaries who operate under the radar. They all live in secret. I adored Chris Chapey the moment he appeared in When You Dare. He literally leapt off the page. Chris is the group’s right-hand man and lives in his own house in Dare’s heavily secured compound. He holds his own with the guys, and their wives adore him, too. The problem is that his life is also undercover. He finds it hard to have a personal life when it’s a major hassle to have someone over. He can’t disclose what he does for a living, organizing the group’s secret missions, so people presume he’s just the chief cook and bottle washer and he cultivates that image.

Matt Houser, Chris’ love interest, was introduced earlier in the series and you could see there was already something between them. Chris doesn’t let anyone get too close, but Matt is tired of waiting.

A novella as the sixth story in the series can be tricky, but I loved the way Lori handled this. In the opening scene, which includes a barbecue and swim at Dare’s compound, the readers get caught up with all the players. The wives take no mercy on Chris and love to stick their noses in his love life. Matt has become close friends with one of the wives, so he has an in with the family.

Everyone likes and trusts Matt, but Chris doesn’t see it. He thinks the guys will never approve of Matt’s inclusion in his life for security reasons. He also feels that Matt, not knowing the nature of Chris’ job, undervalues him. I loved the banter between all the characters. The situation is taken out of Chris’ hands when the guys sit down with Matt to explain their jobs and Chris’ role. Once that is dealt with, Chris has no reason to resist Matt anymore. Chris finally sees that he can have it all.

I’m so glad Lori wrote Chris’ story. He was that likable. I’m betting that Lori didn’t expect such a demand for his story. Given that she doesn’t write in the M/M genre, I was curious about the how she ended up here. So I asked her.

Mary: Why did you give Chris his own book? It’s obviously a change from the genre you normally write.

Lori: Initially, Chris was only a great supporting character. I hadn’t thought of him as a lead. Such is the case with many of my characters. They can’t all get their own books, or I’d never be able to move to a new series. 🙂 But readers adored Chris so much that I was inundated with requests for his story, and specifically his HEA — Happy Ever After. Pretty soon, Chris joined in with the readers and started talking to me, telling me ideas, expounding on his story, and after he got insistent, refusing to let me sleep, I figured I’d better put his tale to paper. I did, and so far the response from readers has been amazing.

Lori: I would never write something that made me uncomfortable. I’m not sure it’s even possible. I love Chris as much as readers do, but my Muse tends to run along the line of one man, one woman. So when Chris told me his story, it was with the love scenes toned way down from my usual voice. The point of the story wasn’t to be explicit, but to give Chris the HEA that he and readers wanted. I hope I accomplished that.

Mary: Now that the men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series is finished, what can you tell us about the next series, Love Undercover? Run the Risk released in September 2012, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the books.

Lori: The Love Undercover series features two cops, a street rat, and a construction worker as the lead heroes. But there is an overarching theme of concealment. Someone in each book is hiding something major. Detective Logan Riske and Pepper were in Run the Risk. Readers met secondary characters Reese and Alice in that book. They’ll be lead characters in Bare It All, available April 30, and since Alice is from the previous series (she had an important role in Trace of Fever) readers will get to visit with Trace again when he makes a few cameos. Reese is also a detective and a good friend to Logan. Rowdy is Pepper’s brother, a street rat turned bar owner, and he hooks up with bartender Avery in Getting Rowdy, available in September 2013. And then Dash, Logan’s brother who owns his own construction company, will be the last book. I know his story and his ladylove, but I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone, and that’s so far away — April or May 2014 — that I’ll just let that one go for now. 🙂

In June I’ll have another benefit book anthology. (All proceeds go to the AAF — Animal Adoption Foundation, a no-kill animal shelter.) I don’t have a title for the anthology yet, but I’ve written another Buckhorn book, with Shohn Hudson (Casey’s younger brother, son to Sawyer and Honey) for the anthology. I hope readers enjoy it! More info will be on my website as soon as I have it!

Mary: How do you have time to write and still have time for charity work?

Lori: The charity work is just a part of what I do. Like … I make time to clean my house, to care for my pets, to visit my extended family, because those things are important to me. Same with helping others. Now, and in the future, my focus is entirely on pets and children. I’m not a person who can turn a blind eye to injustice against them.

Mary Grzesik got her start reading cereal boxes. She loves tennis, reading books, talking about books and writing about books. She can’t decide which is her favorite thing: her e-reader or her tennis racket.